Where lynching is the order of the day (Vigilantism is BAD).

BBC ^ | Thursday, September 13, 2007. | Amarnath Tewary

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

The title of this article, at the time of posting, on the BBC website: “Where lynching is the order of the day” .

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Asia pinglist ping.

[Pikachu_Dad]

Its bad? Doesn’t that depend on which side the noose your neck is on as to if it is ‘good’ or ‘bad’?

[Ready4Freddy]

I thought it might be about Gaza / West Bank where suspected palis suspected of collaboration with Israeli are lynched.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

A few freepers seem to believe that vigilantism is a good thing.

Justice is something for the government to mete out, not an angry mob.

If the government is not doing its job, India has a representative form of government, and they can vote in a more responsible government.

[Ready4Freddy]

where suspected palis suspected of collaboration

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

In retrospect, something specifying India should have also gone in the parentheses in the title.

[scan59]

It’s good to live in the United States, where if you’re accused you at least have a chance at a fair trial.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Bump to that.

[Blood of Tyrants]

According to an Indian friend of mine, Bihar is the Indian equivalent of West Virginia.

[Billthedrill]

I do not necessarily believe that vigilantism is a good thing but I do conclude from a cold study of history that it can be an inevitable thing. A society wherein citizens are bound by laws that are flouted by the lawless will either find a way to enforce them or dissolve. This is not specific to any one culture - this instance is Indian but such things have happened recently on every continent.

In every case without exception vigilantism is an expression of the failure of an inadequate or corrupt government and ineffective or nonexistent law enforcement. Blame these, not the citizens. If the law is "in their own hands" it is because it was put there.

[scory]

No doubt true in the abstract. But when the thieves and killers are right outside your door the view tends, I believe, to take on a certain urgency and the next election cycle becomes far less important than simply ensuring you and your family can live unmolested.

The main problem with vigilante justice is that sometimes it is not just at all. The wrong fellow is strung up or a member or members of the vigilance group takes advantage of the situation to exact revenge on an enemy who committed no crime. Governments make the same mistakes and commit the same crimes but we entertain the hope that the process has enough oversight and accountability built in to keep such miscarriages to a minimum. But it should be pointed out that not all governments are equally rigorous in keeping the system upright.

If I lived in a country where police and courts are arbitrary, corrupt and generally unreliable I think I might be very much tempted to take matters into my own hands. And if others shared my concerns I would join with them. I would try and make things as just as possible and in some places that would be an improvement over the “justice” meted out by corrupt police, judges and government officials.

If I read history correctly societies will normally adhere to the rule of law IF the rule of law exists at all. Generally it seems that vigilantes crop up where government fails or is virtually non-existent. In those cases to appeal to the government is a waste of time and maybe even dangerous.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Agreed.

[sukhoi-30mki]

The same rights also exist in India-but the legal process is agonisingly slow & conviction rates are abysmal(15%).Combine this with the fact that Bihar is about 25 years behind the rest of India on almost all indicators makes mob justice seem attractive.

[Poincare]

A few freepers seem to believe that vigilantism is a good thing.

It's all in the definition. If vigilantism is a mindless angry lynch mob, as Hollywood defines it, then it is bad. If vigilantism is committees of citizens deliberatively bringing law and order and safety to an area without law and order and safety, as in many instances of American history, then it is good.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

There could be times when vigilantism is inevitable, as Bill the Drill put it--will grant you that. Though even if such is the case, it would be good if the town/society with the ineffective government were akin to the pilgrims who landed near Plymouth Rock and make some sort of Mayflower Compact of how they would investigate and punish crimes; sort of a de facto mini-government that would be effective.

[RightWhale]

Vigilantes was the name of the vigilantes in California.

[TChris]

Yeah, the whole evidence and trial thing is overrated. Just get a mob together and start the beatings!

(Too many FReepers seem to believe that setup would be "justice")

[Alberta's Child]

Justice is something for the government to mete out, not an angry mob.

I see vigilantism as a last resort, and I suspect these people do, too. When it gets to this point, the "justice" angle is secondary to the "deterrence" factor.

If the government is not doing its job, India has a representative form of government, and they can vote in a more responsible government.

Right. In the meantime, people still have every right -- and in many case, an OBLIGATION -- to protect their lives an property as they see fit.